Cape Web gurus chip in

Tuesday

Feb 28, 2012 at 2:00 AM

Cape developers join forces to build a new website for the local nonprofit this weekend.

ROBERT GOLD

CENTERVILLE — There is plenty Roy Richardson would like to see updated and improved on his nonprofit group's website. CHIP, which runs two residential homes for people with serious head injuries, hasn't upgraded www.chipshouse.org, in at least a decade.

"We don't have money for those kind of things," Richardson, the group's director, said. "That kind of thing is on the back burner."

A better website could spur more donations and volunteers, he said, along with more interaction for the residents with their friends and families.

But with an annual budget of $1.5 million dedicated to providing everyday care and programs to the residents, there never was money left for a professional Web designer, he said about CHIP, officially known as Cape Head Injured Persons' Housing and Education Group.

This Saturday, the nonprofit's quandary will be solved by a small band of Cape area web developers and designers.

The group picked CHIP as the nonprofit it will create a website for in a day, for free, as part of a project they call Cape Dev Day.

The collection of volunteers will meet at Chatham Bars Inn on Saturday morning. Using a room donated by the resort hotel, the group hopes to have the updated website up and running by the end of the day, organizers said.

"There are other Web groups that are doing charity projects," said Andrew Maker, a project manager at 20Mile Technologies, an Osterville-based web development company. "We can see what doctors can do and what lawyers can do for pro bono work. We looked at ourselves and said what can we do."

Chris OBrien, a designer at 20Mile Technologies, said developers and designers often create websites for fake companies at industry conventions as a way to hone their skills.

OBrien, who helped come up with the Cape Dev Day idea, said it made more sense to help out a local non-profit that could use the free help.

The group of about 10 volunteers will bounce ideas off each other Saturday with the website's final look evolving throughout the day.

"That whole discovery phase is going to be interesting and fun to work out as well," he said.

Harwich-based designer Chris Gillis, who helped develop the concept of the volunteer day, said it also helps show off the skills of local web professionals.

"There is a kind of a vibrant tech scene here," he said.

Maker said the group, using social media to let nonprofits know about the project, receives six applications for area organizations looking for website help.

Maker said volunteers have already started developing ideas for the CHIP website. That includes a way for people to make donations and volunteer for the group online.